António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, says the organization should embrace blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT).
In a statement obtained by Forbes, Guterres recommends that blockchain tech be among the core technologies used by the UN.
“For the United Nations to deliver better on our mandate in the digital age, we need to embrace technologies like blockchain that can help accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.”
The UN is working with the World Identity Network to explore ways to record identities on the blockchain in order to fight child trafficking.
In its year-end report on the world economy, the UN refers to cryptocurrencies as the “new frontier” in digital finance.
It highlights emerging blockchain use cases in property registration, personal identity, and provenance of food and medicines, among many other types of data.
“The decentralized networks for cryptocurrencies, bitcoin being a well-known example, can keep track of digital transactions. They enable value to be exchanged and can give rise to new business models which would otherwise require significant regulatory and institutional commitments.”
The UN has steadily explored how to work with crypto and blockchain. In May of 2018, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) revealed it’s exploring IOTA’s distributed ledger technology to see if it can increase the agency’s ability to manage data efficiently. In October, Unicef, the organization’s fund devoted to helping disadvantaged children around the globe, began accepting Bitcoin and Ether donations.